If someone asks you about Sunday’s Celtics game, make sure to emphasize its “great personality,” because by no means was it visually pleasing.

In a low-scoring affair that saw neither team playing particularly well, the Celtics ‘ wearing their bizarre and unbecoming gray “Parquet Pride” jerseys ‘ fell 83-75 to the Heat at the TD Garden. The C’s struggled early and couldn’t regain the lead despite coming back to tie the game.

Without stars Dwyane Wade and Luol Deng, Miami relied heavily on their big men. Hassan Whiteside led all scorers with 20 points and nine rebounds while Chris Bosh added 18 points and seven rebounds. Avery Bradley and Tyler Zeller each netted 17 points to lead the way for the Celtics. Zeller started in place of Jared Sullinger, who was benched to start the game for arriving late to a pregame walkthrough. Marcus Thornton (15 points) was the only other Celtics player in double figures.

Even if there was some sort of bucket emporium that exclusively sold buckets and the team had a variety of currency options available, the Celtics still would not have been allowed to purchase a bucket. The C’s finished 13 for 41 from the field for an unimpressive 32.7 percent. Chris “Birdman” Andersen made as many 3-pointers as the Celtics, who made just one of their 10 attempts. Their inability to acquire aforementioned buckets, I’d argue, directly contributed to their 13-point deficit at halftime.

12 GOOD MINUTES OF BASKETBALL

Evan Turner may have started the game at point guard, but after missing his first six shots he quickly found himself on the bench. With Marcus Smart playing in his place to open the second half, the Celtics cut the Heat’s 13-point lead down to two. With the hyper-athletic lineup of Smart, Bradley and Jae Crowder in the game, the C’s increased their intensity and ball pressure on the defensive end. The Heat scored only 17 points in the quarter, turning the ball over seven times.

Is anybody on this Celtics team capable of playing in a future All-Star Game?

The current 14-man roster shares one All-Star bid, as Gerald Wallace appeared as a reserve in 2010, but the real question is whether or not any of the eight players currently under the age of 25 will ever receive an invitation. Needless to say, nobody on this year’s Celtics even cracked the top 50 vote-getters for good reason.

While we shouldn’t give up all hope on Kelly Olynyk or James Young just yet, it’s safe to assume Jared Sullinger and Marcus Smart offer the best hopes among these Celtics for a future All-Star nomination. So, let’s take a look at how the 2015 NBA All-Stars fared at the same stage of their careers as that C’s tandem.

BACKCOURT

Midway through his rookie season, Smart has averaged 6.7 points (54.3 true shooting percentage), 3.2 assists against 1.2 turnovers, 2.4 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 22.2 minutes over 30 games. How do those numbers rate against the pre-All-Star rookie averages for the 12 guards who made this year’s East and West rosters?

Against all odds, the Celtics own a winning record on their West Coast road trip.

For the third time in five games against Western Conference opponents over the past week, the C’s came out on top, holding off the Jazz 99-90. The Celtics improved to 16-27 on the season, moving within two games of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot. Even more promising, they wrap up the road trip on Wednesday against the Timberwolves, owners of the league’s worst record.

Tayshaun Prince of all people led the scoring effort with 19 points on 10 shots off the bench. Fellow reserve Tyler Zeller added 14 points and seven boards while Jared Sullinger (9 rebounds) and Avery Bradley each contributed a dozen points. Gordon Hayward led the Jazz (16-29) with 26 points against his former coach at Butler.

“He’s just like me,” Stevens told reporters of Prince. “He knows what’s going on. He’s lived it all. They’ve got you down by 20 in a quarter, and it doesn’t look like his pulse has moved. You go up by 20 in a quarter, and it doesn’t look like his pulse has moved. He’s just playing. He’s playing the right way. He made us better today. He’s made us better with his presence already, and that’s been fun. It’s been fun for our young guys to have another older guy to kind of lean on and learn from.”

Fielding a lineup of Marcus Smart, Marcus Thornton, Gerald Wallace, Prince and Zeller to start the second quarter, the Celtics ignited a 30-7 run over the course of 7:32, transforming a 21-21 game into a 23-point lead. Proving he’s still a capable contributor, Prince highlighted the effort, scoring 10 of his 12 first-half points and adding three assists during the run. After trading buckets with the Jazz early, the Celtics never trailed again.

TURD QUARTER

As is so often suggested, basketball is a game of runs. The run giveth, and the run taketh away. And boy did the run taketh away in the third quarter. The Celtics went nearly six minutes without scoring a field goal in the frame. Meanwhile, the Jazz starters rattled off an 18-0 run that slashed a 22-deficit down to four.

FREE FALLING

Since Jan. 25, 2013, the Celtics haven’t finished perfect from the free throw line when attempting more than 15 freebies in a game. After making their first 16 free throws to start the game, Prince’s miss in the final minute kept the streak alive. Still, those free throws made much of the difference, as the C’s finished 21-of-23 from the line (91.3 percent) while the Jazz missed eight of their 19 tries (57.9 percent).

BENCH MOB

As Celtics coach Brad Stevens continues to search for the right rotation, the Boston bench proved more effective than the starters in Utah. Led by Prince and Zeller, the C’s bench scored 53 points on 20-of-35 shooting (57.1 percent). With Bradley (4-12 FG) and Evan Turner (2-7 FG) struggling to find their shooting stroke, the starters scored 46 points on 15-of-39 shooting (38.5 percent), suggesting the depth of Stevens’ rotation is proving effective in the February doldrums of the NBA season ‘ particularly during their fourth game in five nights.

“You can’t come out the way we came out in the third quarter,” Stevens added postgame, “and I thought we were pretty locked in and engaged, but we looked like we were running in the mud a little bit with that group, so I went to the bench quicker, and I thought the bench really did it’s job both times pushing the lead out.”

ROAD WARRIORS

Credit Stevens for motivating an ever-changing Celtics roster in the wake of the Rajon Rondo trade. After losing 24 straight to Western Conference foes on the road, the C’s have shown considerable fight during their six-game West Coast trip, winning three of their first five contests and giving the Warriors more than they bargained for. Despite the turmoil, this Celtics team is developing. So, cue a Tayshaun Prince trade, I guess?

In a wild finish that seemed destined to end in another Celtics loss, the ball ended up in Evan Turner‘s hands in the right corner, and with a single stroke of fortune he ended the C’s road woes against the Western Conference.

After Jared Sullinger nearly lost the ball in the lane on the final play, he found his fellow Ohio State product from his bottom, and Turner’s 3-pointer with one second left gave the Celtics a 90-89 lead in Portland. On the other end, the Blazers failed to get off a shot, and just like that the C’s 24-game road losing streak against teams out West ended.

The Celtics improved to 14-26, jumping from the league’s fifth-worst record to eighth-worst approaching the season’s midway point. Remarkably, they trail the Nets by 2.5 games for the East’s eighth seed.

In his first start of the season, Brandon Bass recorded his only double-double of the year (13 points, 10 rebounds). Sullinger added 17 points and nine boards, and Avery Bradley scored a team-high 18 points in the victory. Damian Lillard led the LaMarcus Aldridge-less Blazers (31-13) with 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

Taking advantage of tired legs on the second night of the Blazers’ back-to-back, the Celtics grabbed a 23-19 lead by the end of the first quarter. In an attempt to match Portland’s athleticism, C’s coach Brad Stevens inserted Bass into the starting lineup to replace Tyler Zeller. While Bass responded with a couple early buckets, it was Zeller who led the charge off the bench, scoring five points and grabbing a pair of rebounds in the opening frame.

Former Duke guard Andre Dawkins will sign a 10-day contract with the Celtics on Thursday, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations. RealGM.com’s Shams Charania first reported the deal. Dawkins has been playing in the Miami Heat system since going undrafted this past June.

In four seasons for the Blue Devils from 2009-14, the 6-foot-5, 215-pound Dawkins averaged 7.1 points with an impressive 60.8 true shooting percentage (40.7 3P%) in 17.4 minutes over 142 games. Once a top-10 high school recruit at Chesapeake (Va.) Atlantic Shores Christian School, his journey to the NBA is a remarkable one, having redshirted Duke’s 2012-13 season to cope with the depression resulting from the death of his sister during his freshman year.

Since leaving Durham, N.C., Dawkins played summer league games for Miami in Orlando and the Houston Rockets in Las Vegas, averaging 9.8 points (53.9 TS%) in 18.1 minutes over 12 games for the two teams. He signed with the Heat’s D-League affiliate in Sioux Falls, S.D., averaging 22.9 points (66.0 TS%), 3.4 assists and 3.2 rebounds in 36.6 minutes over 11 games for the Skyforce. And he played two games during a call-up to Miami, totaling 22 points (7-12 FG) in 38 minutes over two games.

The Celtics currently rank 22nd in points per 100 possessions (105.0), so they could use all they help they can get.

There comes a point in time where an NBA coach can’t worry about massaging the egos of his team. That time has come for Brad Stevens.

After another close-but-no cigar special Friday night at TD Garden, Stevens said that he’s seeing some signs of life from his now 13-25 squad. But not enough. The Celtics shot 60 percent in the first half, competed hard for three quarters and even led the Bulls by three at the half. But Boston, as it often has this season, ran out of gas in the fourth and fell, 119-105.

Asked if he’s concerned about his constantly changing roster and the impact it might have heading on a brutal six-game western road swing, Stevens was brutally honest.

“I’m not as worried about keeping them up,” Stevens said. “I think we need to get better off of that. I thought we didn’t have enough ‘ we weren’t as tight as we need to be against that level of talent. We were loose in our coverages and a little loose on the ball and it hurt us. They’ve got some great, great players that stepped up and made plays and really separated the game.

“But even when we were going back and forth I didn’t feel like ‘ I didn’t feel like it was sustainable at that rate, the way we were playing. So, yeah, I don’t know, hey’¦we’re employed to do everything we can, to have everything we have, and to manage the ups and downs throughout a season. Players and coaches. And it’s on us as individuals to be up and ready. And certainly you have to help some guys through that and help manage some of that but, you know, we can’t spend our time managing feelings right now; we have to spend our time getting better.” Read the rest of this entry »

In a series of smaller moves, the Celtics have adjusted their roster once again.

The Celtics finalized a three-team trade that will send Austin Rivers to play in Los Angeles for his father, former C’s and current Clippers coach Doc Rivers, in exchange for a 2017 second-round pick, a $2.4 million trade exception and the expiring contracts of old friend Shavlik Randolph and journeyman Chris Douglas-Roberts.

The Celtics recently acquired the younger Rivers as part of last week’s Jeff Green trade, which also brought Tayshaun Prince‘s expiring deal and a future first-round draft pick (most likely in 2019) to Boston.

In another minor move, the Celtics placed Nate Robinson on waivers. They acquired Robinson earlier this week in exchange for Jameer Nelson, who arrived last month in the Rajon Rondo trade. It’s all very confusing.

In the end, as a result of trading Rondo and Green, the Celtics are left with Jae Crowder, $12.0 million in expiring contracts, three trade exceptions ($12.9 million for Rondo, $5.0 million for Brandan Wright and $2.4 million for Austin Rivers) and what will most likely be two first-round picks (Dallas’ in 2016 and Memphis’ in 2019) and four second-round picks (Dallas’ in 2016; Minnesota’s in 2016 and 2017; and the Clippers’ in 2017).